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In Flanders fields

Introduction

In Flanders fields is another 1917 ‘war song’, very different in temper from He is There!. It sets—at his business partner Julian Myrick’s request—a poem by John McCrae, who had been medical referee for their insurance firm, Mutual Life, in Montreal. Myrick had it premiered at a luncheon for Mutual managers at the Waldorf Hotel. The audience was understandably nonplussed, and Ives was distressed by the poor performance, and he revised the song in 1919. It partly derives from a lost march of 1899 and is a dirge for the war dead, opening with a bitter fanfare and containing sardonic references to Columbia, Gem of the Ocean, God Save the King, the Marseillaise and several other national tunes.

Recordings

In a second disc of Ives’s songs, Finley and Drake again enthral their listeners, bringing them to the emotional core of each work and confirming that theirs is an unbeatable musical partnership. ‘Gerald Finley, Julius Drake, and Hyperion here give u ...» More

This recital draws its inspiration from those lives upturned by the Great War, whether soldier or civilian. Alongside established works, the programme introduces little known songs which portray the humanity of those caught up in the torrent of wa ...» More

Details

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amidst the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from falling hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though the poppies grow In Flanders fields.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amidst the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from falling hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though the poppies grow In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1872-1918)

Charles Ives (1874-1954) studied music at Yale University. After graduating he worked as an insurance broker while composing in his spare time. He was successful in both fields, starting his own insurance firm and winning a Pulitzer Prize for his compositions. WW1 so affected Ives that he tried to enlist into the volunteer ambulance service of the YMCA in 1918. He was rejected. His collection 3 Songs of the War (in which In Flanders fields appears) is fundamentally about WW1, but Ives uses themes from American Civil War songs (his father was an Army bandleader at that time), marrying two atrocious conflicts which affected his family.

John McCrae (1872-1918) was a Canadian doctor appointed as a field surgeon in the Canadian artillery. He was charged with running a field hospital during the Battle of Ypres in 1915. The burial of his friend, Alexis Helmer, inspired the poem In Flanders fields, written on 3 May 1915. After publication McCrae became quite a celebrity but he continued to work in the Canadian General Hospital in Northern France until 1918 when he died of pneumonia.